Edea's Bad Day
by kabukimono
Summary: Edea's having one of those bad period days where everything is going wrong! Luckily, Ringabel offers to lend a helping hand... literally.


It was one of those days where everything went wrong.

First, she had woken up to see that her period had arrived a full two days earlier than it was supposed to, and thus she had bled all over one of her favorite sets of pajamas _and_ on the mattress. Then, she had ripped a seam in the top she'd wanted to wear, and didn't have the time to mend it, so she had to wear something that was last season instead. At breakfast, Ringabel had been lounging with his stupid long legs out, and she had tripped over his foot, sending food all over Tiz and wasting a perfectly good, probably delicious meal. Then, she had tried to redeem herself by fighting at her best, but her cramps had started and she was half a pace slower than she should have been, leading to an incident where the monster attacked before she could get in a hit. Agnès had been hurt, and they'd decided as a group that maybe fighting wasn't on the schedule that day. And then, they had returned to Grandship only for Edea to realize she had run out of her favorite candy, the one she reserved _especially_ for bad period days, but they were half a world's journey from Eternia, where they were purchased.

She had resigned herself to a low, painful death by bad luck, curling up by herself on a small corner of her bare mattress (she was still soaking the bloody spot) when the door opened.

"There you are!" Ringabel said. "I've been looking for you."

Edea pretended not to hear him for a moment, sighing deeply. Ringabel looking for her was never a good sign. How else could this day go wrong?

"You didn't knock," she finally said.

"Ah," he replied. "Right. I beg your pardon… give me one moment." She heard the door click close, and then a second later there was a knock. Despite herself and the cramps gnawing at her body, she smiled and kept quiet.

He knocked once more, then twice, and finally on the third knock he opened the door again. "You're supposed to let me in!" he complained. "I've been waiting!"

"You already let yourself in," she pointed out. Most of the time arguing with Ringabel was nothing but headache inducing, but it was a different story when it was this silly and petty. It already made her feel better. "What do you want?"

"I wanted to check on you," he said to her. "How are you feeling?"

There was such kindness in his voice that she almost didn't have it in her to be cranky. Almost. "Ugh!"

"That bad?" he asked, and she heard him shutting the door. For a moment, she wondered if he had decided to leave her alone after all, but then his footsteps crossed the room to her corner of her sad, wet bed. "Maybe a hot bath would help?" he offered. "I can draw you one, if you'd like. I even have some bubble bath from Florem you can put in it. It's supposed to smell like roses."

Bubbles! For a short second her mood lifted before it came back down. "Don't go thinking anything weird," she warned as she unfolded her legs and looked at up him. "You can't watch me or anything."

"I would never assume," Ringabel replied, holding his hands up. He gave her a wide smile. "This is a no-strings-attached offer, I promise! You'll feel better after a hot bath and maybe some chocolate, won't you?"

She perked up. "You have chocolate?" It probably wasn't quite the same thing as her favorite, but right she wanted anything that would be rich and sweet. And a hot bath did sound great, actually. It would soothe her from top to bottom. Still, she hesitated.

He held out a hand. "Let's get you in the bath. I won't look, you have my word. And I do have chocolate. I bought it last time we were in Florem, for - never mind why I bought it."

It was a testament to how terrible her day had been, if the pinnacle of it was letting Ringabel coax her into a hot bath with promises of sweets. She placed her hand in his and he pulled her to her feet, squeezing her fingers gently for a brief moment before leading her out of the room and into one of the bathrooms on the inn, the one that primarily he and Tiz used. There, she stood awkwardly as he started the hot water heater and then the water, and began to rummage through the mess that was his toiletries as the bath filled.

"How do you know where anything is?" Edea asked, leaning on the counter as he rifled through small bottles. Various colognes, judging by the cloud of scent that wafted up with the bottles' movement. She saw a glittery ponytail holder, just lying about, and picked it up so that she could sweep her hair up into a bun on the top of her head. "Is this why you take so long in the morning?"

Ringabel gave her a pained look. "Of course not. You just can't rush perfection, Edea! You know that. I keep everything I use daily all together, by the sink." She looked to where he pointed, where another army of bottles and tubs sat. Huh. Well, now she knew where his pomade was, so she could put glitter into it.

He finally fished out a small bottle of some pink liquid and added this to the hot water.

"Huh. It does smell like roses," she said as the bubbles began to quickly build, spreading across the surface of the water. It looked wonderful, and she leaned over to test the water with her fingers.

He beamed at her. "I told you that it would! Now, enjoy yourself."

"You're not going to stay?" she asked, surprised, before mentally slapping herself. _Of course_ he wasn't going to stay, even if she was actually enjoying his company for once. He was being nice and almost normal.. Ringabel looked as just as startled as she felt. Immediately, she could see red rise up on his cheeks and to his neck.

"I - I did say it was no-strings-attached, Edea!" he stammered, rubbing his neck. "As much as I would love - ah, never mind, I'll just leave you to it."

Edea looked up at him. At his bright red cheeks, and the nervous smile he was giving her, all while his eyes were unable to meet hers. And she realized something in that moment.

"You can stay and wash my back," she told him. "I trust you."

His eyes flicked over to her, and she could see his nervous smile fade off into something more bittersweet, the edges of his mouth curved in self-depreciation. "Do you?"

"It's _your_ bubble bath," she pointed out. "It's only fair you get to use it too." That - that wasn't quite what she'd meant to say, but she was going to have to live with it, now.

"What?"

"I think it's big enough for us both?" She kept digging her grave.

Ringabel opened his mouth to argue, but noticed in that moment that the tub was threatening to overfill. He hastened to turn off the water flow, and Edea took that moment to close the bathroom door, locking it so that Tiz or Agnès did not come in. It would be hard enough to explain this without interruptions.

Ringabel turned to the counter and busied himself with straightening up his toiletries as Edea stripped down to her underwear and stepped into the bath. The water sloshed over the side and spread across the tiled floor until it made contact with his feet, and he shifted nervously.

"I'm in my underwear," Edea said to his back. If Ringabel actually joined her in the bath, she didn't think it would be a good idea for the two of them to be completely nude. No, she could still wear her panties and feel the wonderful heat of the bath permeating through her body. The bubbles wouldn't care if she had on her ugliest period panties, and they would hide her from Ringabel's view as well. "You can come in now."

"Don't look," he said hesitantly, and she saw out of the corner of her eye as he begin to strip, reaching up behind his head to pull his shirt off. How men did that, she would never know.

"I won't," she promised, though she wanted to, just to find out how he _did_ that. Instead, she looked down in the water, pressing her hands and a washcloth to her chest. She heard the sounds of clothing rustling, his trousers unzipping, and the sound of him padding over across the wet floor, splashing slightly. His hands touched her bare neck, and she jumped, then scooted forward for him.

The tub _would_ be big enough for them both, because she and Agnès had fit inside the similarly sized one in their own restroom. But Ringabel had longer legs than they did, and so he had to bend his knees so his legs would fit on either side of her without his feet sticking out oddly. He hunched over, and she could feel him holding his hands to his chest as well.

"I'm wearing my underwear too," he said.

"That's good," she replied, because yes - that was good. She'd seen Ringabel in his underwear before - and even less, because he had a monstrosity as a swimsuit, and they'd gone swimming as a group several times - and had no problems handling that. Anything else, she wasn't sure about.

They sat in awkward silence for a few moments as Edea allowed the heat of the water to soak into her skin and into her cramping lower part. The discomfort was already disappearing, much to her relief. She closed her eyes and shifted, and Ringabel let out a breath.

"Oh right. Your back."

She reached back to hand him a different washcloth - she wasn't giving up the one that was keeping her decent, even if he likely wouldn't be able to see over her shoulder, and she could him splash the cloth around underneath the bubbles to get it wet… then he was squeezing out the excess… and then he was sweeping the cloth against her back along with -

"Did you put bubbles on my back?" she asked, confused. It was almost ticklish, the way they were spreading and popping on her skin, and the scent of rose was very strong.

He laughed, a sound she could both hear and _feel_ , given how close they were. "Maybe just a few! It's a good look for you!"

"Hmm," she pretended to think. "I suppose that's alright. It is soap, after all."

"Your back doesn't need much scrubbing," Ringabel said, even as she could feel him running the cloth up and down, across her shoulders… he wasn't very good at cleaning someone else's back, she realized belatedly, and wondered how he ever cleaned his own, if this was how he did it. "It's beautiful the way it is."

"Is it, now?" He was being weird again, she thought to herself, wondering why she'd thought this was even remotely a good idea. "Even if it's dirty?"

"Yes? It's not very dirty at all, Edea. Even if it was, though, you have a very lovely back, straight and solid… no blemishes of any sort, not even the tiniest of scars, though I do believe you have a birthmark here." She felt his finger press against a spot, and she squealed, arching away from the ticklish feeling. She did have a birthmark there. Her mother had told her about it years ago. "Ah! Forgive me." His finger pulled away.

"It's fine," she replied, shaking her head and holding on tight to the washcloth against her chest. "Keep scrubbing, mister."

"I am!" His voice was higher than normal now, and she felt his scrubbing at her back resume with twice as much focus. _That_ was more like, Ringabel sweeping across her back from shoulder to shoulder, moving down to remove all the grime and bad luck. She sighed.

When he finished, she stayed hunched over, not sure if she could lean back against him without exposing herself, or making him uncomfortable. She could feel him lay the washcloth on her shoulder, and then him shifting so that he could lean back against the tub, likely leaning his head back. The water was nice to soak in, after all, and the bubbles were still plentiful. He'd emptied the whole container, and she was relatively sure it was meant to be used over multiple times…

"Does you feel better now?" he asked her after a few moments. "All clean?"

"Some," she admitted, then added. "My back hurts, just a little."

"That's likely because you're hunched over like an old man," he said, a hint of amusement in his voice. But then she felt him sit up straight, and the water rippled as his hands dipped below the surface.

"It's because of cramps!" she started to argue, but in the next second his fingers were pressing against her lower back and she sighed. Even if she didn't have cramps, that felt heavenly. Ringabel's hands were large enough that she could feel the tips of them brushing her waist his thumbs rubbed circles on either side of her spine, easing out the tension there.

"Are you sure?" he teased, moving his thumbs up slowly.

"Yes." The Proprietress kept a hardy stock of red raspberry leaf tea, but it could only do so much. She would just have to let the pain run its course. At least, that's what she had thought before his magic fingers had gone to work. There was just enough pressure to override the cramps she'd been feeling all day, and it felt wonderful for other reasons as well. They were all warriors; they all had various knots and tightness in their backs.

As Ringabel was discovering now, making a low noise as he dug into one particular knot that had been bothering Edea for a couple of weeks. She bit her lip to swallow back a noise of her own, letting her chin fall to her chest and breathing out her nose as the soreness slowly faded.

"You should let me give you a massage," he said, once he was done with that spot. He rolled his thumb over it, testing it one last time. Even with all the hot water, Edea could feel how warm that muscle had gone now that it was worked loose. "I'll have you know that I'm very good with my hands."

"Yeah?" she replied, her voice breathier than she would have liked to admit. "I… bet you say that to all the girls."

"Not all of them, I assure. Only the ones I like."

"So… all the girls, then."

He pulled his hands away and she wanted to protest - maybe apologize for making fun of him - but then she felt his palm push against her lower spine and it gave a cracking noise, sending delicious shocks through her system. She hadn't even realized how tight that had been until then.

"Where did you learn this?" she demanded when she could talk again. "Was it one of your girlfriends?!" Because if so, she was going to have to meet this girl and learn herself.

"No, it wasn't a girl," he was quick to say. "I'm not quite sure where I learned it. I imagine that it's one of the many things my mind is hiding from me but my body remembers."

"Your body needs to start remembering more useful things," Edea decided. Between the heat of the bath and the looseness of her muscles, she was starting to feel a little drowsy. Her cramps were all but forgotten. Her bad luck? A distant memory.

She leaned back against Ringabel's chest, closing her eyes.

He sputtered, his hands flying out of the bath to hang cautiously out of the bathtub. "Are you… are you alright?" he asked her.

"I'm fine," she replied, not bothering to look up at his face. He was probably blushing, knowing him. "Can you keep rubbing my lower back? It was nice."

There was a long pause before he answered. "Alright," he agreed, and his hands slipped back under the water and the bubbles, his thumbs caressing her back again in short order. She smiled and turned so she could rest her head against his shoulder. With her washcloth covering her chest, along with the bubbles that hid most of the rest of her from view, she wasn't worried about him seeing anything.

In time, he stopped massaging her back, citing a hand cramp, but promised he would do it again later if she wanted it. Edea only nodded in response, and the two of them stayed in the bath for a while longer. She felt his arm wind carefully around her waist, and decided that she'd let it go for now, in exchange for him being nice. She could nice to him once in a while as well.

Eventually though, the bath water went tepid. The bubbles all faded away, and Edea opened her eyes to a basin full of water where both sets of pale legs were fully visible.

"We should get out," she said with a regretful sigh.

"We should," Ringabel agreed. "My fingers are all pruny."

"Better than your face being pruny," she replied, and grabbed the edge of the tub of the tub so that she could climb out; it would be easier for him to get out if she was gone. As she did, the washcloth she'd had covering her chest fell off, splashing into the water below. They both halted.

"I'm not looking!" Ringabel gasped, and she glanced at him to see he'd slapped his hands over his eyes. She squinted her own at him.

"What did you see?" she threatened, cracking her knuckles as she stood over him in the tub.

"Nothing," he replied. "I saw nothing at all, I swear it."

What little she could see of his face was red, so she wasn't sure she _entirely_ believed him, but it wouldn't do her any good to keep standing over him like this so he could peek between his fingers and _really_ get a eyeful. Edea climbed out of the basin and trotted to where Tiz always had fresh towels lying out. Wrapping one around her form, she tapped the counter.

"You can get out now, Ringabel."

As revenge for whatever he may or may not have seen, she had every intention of watching him climb out of the tub, but as he did so, clambering to his feet with practiced ease, she realized that the blue silk underwear he wore today _clung_ when it got wet, and she was seeing more than she had bargained for. Edea turned away and busied herself with picking up her discarded clothing from where it sat. She couldn't get dressed with wet panties, but there should be no issue with her walking to her room in only a towel. They'd all done it before.

He wrapped a towel around his waist only, much to her chagrin. It left his top bare, and his skin was flushed a healthy pink from the heat of the bath, water droplets racing down his toned chest and stomach. She tried not to watch him in the mirror, as he ran a hand through the bottom of his hair. It had gotten wet.

"Why don't you change?" he asked her, and she saw him glance over at her in the reflection. Their eyes met. "I still owe you that chocolate, don't I?"

"Oh, right." She had almost forgotten that, and had no idea _how_.

"And," he added, his eyes crinkling with amusement. "Another massage, perhaps? I assure you, I am _very_ good with my hands."

She wished they were still in the bath, if only so she could splash some water into the top part of his hair. His pompadour had so far remained unscathed from the water, and that didn't seem fair at all.

"Chocolate first," she decided, tapping her lip. "Then you'll give me a massage."

"Deal," he replied, smiling so brightly that she was almost distracted by how neat and even his teeth were, and how his eyes sparkled at her. "I'll meet you in your room."

When she returned to her room, she discovered that the blood stain had successfully been soaked away, and the mattress was already fully dry. This mean that she could - after she changed out of her sopping panties and into a pair of the fluffiest pajamas she owned - make the bed again with clean sheets that were fresh and clean and smelled nice because they'd just done the laundry. By the time she was done with that, Ringabel had arrived with the promised chocolate, an _entire container_ in the shape of a large rose, with a variety of chocolates in all shapes and sizes and fillings. She stretched out in her fresh new sheets and began to snack, making sure to sample each and every type of chocolate (she'd leave a few for Agnès, she decided, who would likely be getting her monthly in the next couple of days).

The chocolate was not enough to fill her mouth or hide her moans as Ringabel climbed onto the bed so that he could pop more of her back, his hands navigating toward the top of her spine until she felt all loose and relaxed. Then, those same stupid wonderful hands of his were working out the knots she'd known were present in her shoulder blades for a long time. She'd just never done anything with them.

"Alright, Ringabel," she managed to say once she finished the chocolate morsel. It had had caramel in it, and she'd let it melt into her mouth while he'd worked on one knot in particular. "Same time next month? You, me, and some chocolate?"

She couldn't turn her head to see his face, but she could _hear_ the amusement, and something else she couldn't really identify, on his voice. "It's a date."

… she'd correct him later, she decided, because his thumb was now digging _deep_ into some muscle and she wouldn't have been able to make a coherent sentence if she wanted to. His delusions aside, it hadn't been that bad of a day after all.


End file.
